Prolonging youth is not for the lazy

Sport really slows down aging, but you will have to do it seriously

Anna Stavina, XX2 century

The "old age pill" cannot be bought yet either by prescription or without – although work in this direction is already underway. The authors of the new study claim that such a "medicine" should be sought not in a pharmacy, but in a gym. It turns out that regular exercise can really slow down the aging process at the cellular level.

"If you are 40 years old, it does not mean that your biological age is also 40," says study author Larry Tucker, professor of physical education at Brigham Young University, in a press release High levels of exercise linked to nine years of less aging (at the cellular level). University). – We all know people who look younger than their years. The more time we devote to physical activity, the slower the aging process of the body."

The results of the study are published in the publication Preventive Medicine (Physical activity and telomere length in U.S. men and women: An NHANES investigation). In the course of the work, it was found that people who regularly and a lot of sports have significantly longer telomeres than those who lead a sedentary or moderately active lifestyle.

Telomeres are "caps" located at the ends of chromosomes. In cells, they play the role of a "biological clock". Telomere length is directly related to age: every time a cell divides, part of the "cap" is lost. Thus, the older we get, the shorter our telomeres turn out to be.

Professor Tucker found that adults who lead an active lifestyle, in terms of telomere length, are 9 years "younger" than their peers who do not exercise at all, and 7 years "younger" than those who are limited to moderate physical activity. As part of the study, the criterion for an active lifestyle was half–hour (for women) or forty-minute (for men) jogging 5 or more times a week - or equivalent loads.

"If you want to significantly slow down the 'internal clock', light exercise seems unlikely to help," says Professor Tucker. "You need regular intensive classes."

During the study, Tucker analyzed data from 5,823 adult volunteers who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The authors of this work, along with other indicators, also measured the length of the participants' telomeres. The National Study also included information about 62 sports that the volunteers were engaged in.

Professor Tucker found that the telomeres of people who did not devote time to physical activity were 140 nucleotide pairs shorter than those who actively moved for at least 30-40 minutes a day. Oddly enough, there was no significant difference between those who led a sedentary lifestyle and those who were moderately active in sports.

It is not known exactly how intense physical exercise is associated with slowing down the process of shortening telomeres. Professor Tucker believes that it's about inflammation and oxidative stress. Previous studies have shown that telomere length is closely related to these two factors. It is also known that intensive physical exercises reduce the severity of inflammatory processes and fight oxidative stress in the body.

"We know that regular exercise helps to reduce the risk of death and prolong life. And now we know that this happens, in part, due to the preservation of telomere length," adds Professor Tucker.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  15.05.2017